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"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

baseball

Figured I'd throw an open thread up to consolidate the inevitable moves that will be made today. From the Tigers' perspective, I wouldn't be surprised to see Cespedes and probably Davis moved. There's also speculation around Avila and Simon, but I don't see anyone being interested in those guys.

Other moves/news from around the league today:

Baltimore got Gerardo Parra from the Brewers. Not a sexy move, but he's having a career year and may be able to help them in a playoff push.

Lots of chatter around Aroldis Chapman and Craig Kimbrel. I would be surprised to see the Reds give up Chapman, but I expect Kimbrel will be moved (probably to the Yankees).

Jay Bruce is looking to be heading to the Mets in exchange for Zach Wheeler. If that comes to fruition, I think the Reds come out on top in that deal.

The Indians are probably going to trade Carlos Carrasco.

It's an interesting time, that's for sure. Cespedes is definitely Detroit's biggest trade chip right now. I expect Detroit would get 2-3 prospects in return. My hope is that they would somehow also bolster their bullpen in that deal.

This afternoon Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and John Smoltz were enshrined in baseball's Hall of Fame. All deserving in my, unimportant, opinion. It's a pretty solid class, and it's very impressive what the pitchers accomplished during the height of the steriod era.

Baseball was my first love growing up, and I was convinced, like many others, that I, too, would one day be a big leaguer. I followed the game religiously. This, and last years class, are the first two that I watched for a meaningful amount of time (26 y/o). So, these hall of fame classes are getting more special for me.

What says you? Any favorite memories from these guys? As a Sox fan, I'll never forget Pedro's '99 All Star start and tossing Zimmer to the ground.

Our favorite ESPN personality and radio host Colin Cowherd is under fire for comments he made about Dominicans and baseball.

Deadspin has the 15 second clip here but for those who don't want to listen, Cowherd's damning quote is:

"I've never just bought into [the idea that] 'baseball's just too complex.' Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic."

This Yahoo article has the full quote where he follows up the first quote by saying:

"The Dominican Republic has not been known in my lifetime as having world class academic abilities."

Apparently Cowherd has no problems burning bridges and offending anyone in his way as he goes from ESPN to Fox Sports. He's been called out by multiple Domincan players including Joey Bautista on twitter.

Now more than ever I'd rather be on the Harbaugh side of the Harbuagh Cowherd debate. To put it nicely, Cowherd is an asshat.

The 1961 team won the Big Ten title, the first since the 1953 National Championship team, with sophomore Bill Freehan leading the way, but did not make it to the College World Series.

After Freehan left to be a Tigers Bonus Baby, the 1962 team finished second in the conference, but won the College World Series.

Don Lund then left as manager for another job in the athletic department and Milbry (Moby) Benedict took over as manager until 1979.

Though his teams finished second in 1964, 1965, 1967, 1971 and 1973, and third place five other seasons, Moby's teams did not win the Big Ten title until 1975, Michigan's first since the 1961 Freehan team.

The 1975 team finished 28 and 12 overall, 13 and 3 in the conference, losing the NCAA regional final in Ypsilanti 2-1 to a loaded Eastern Michigan team, featuring Bob Welch and Bob Owchinko on the pitching staff, future Tiger Pat Sheridan in the outfield, and two more future major leaguers.

1975 MVP starting pitcher Mark Weber returned, but #2 man Chuck Rogers was off to the pros and #3 starter Craig Forhan was off to UM law school.

The 1976 team was shooting for UM's first back-to-back conference baseball titles since 1944-45.

Following the 1976 season, Weber was named co-MVP with fellow starter Lary Sorensen, a junior, who entered the year with a 7 and 6 career record, and left after the season as a Milwaukee Brewers 8th round draft pick.

It was: “Sorensen and Weber and pray for bad weather”, along the lines of “Spahn and Sain and two days of rain.”

After the pair of Boston Brave starters went 8 and 0 over a 12 day span in early September, 1948, a newspaperman wrote:

First we'll use Spahnthen we'll use SainThen an off dayfollowed by rainBack will come Spahnfollowed by SainAnd followedwe hopeby two days of rain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spahn

In the 1970s, Big Ten baseball scheduled conference doubleheaders on weekends, all 7 inning games. MSU was our travel partner, and Indiana was paired with Ohio.

Except, to close the season, we played single 9 inning games, home and home with MSU.

Games might be Friday- Saturday, or Saturday-Sunday, but, if the first date rained out, that was it, the visiting team moved on to the next town for the next day's doubleheader.

If the second date rained out, those games could be made up the following day.

First baseman “Boomer” Wasilewski (BA .248, but team leading 23 walks) was down in the count, one ball, two strikes, when he blasted a double over the left fielder's head, and his third game winning hit of the season.

Michigan wins, 3 – 2, running its conference record to 5 and 2, still good enough for first, over 8 and 4 Iowa, and Ohio's 5 and 3, going into Sunday's games with Indiana.

Wayne DeNeff covered baseball for the Ann Arbor News, and closed his story with:

“Michigan coach Moby Benedict hasn't had much luck trying to find third and fourth starters but has a couple of pretty good arms in sophomores Bill Stennet and Crag McGinnis and they're the likely starters against Indiana today.

“It would be a good time for them to get going” said the Michigan coach.”

Bill did start game one, and Wasilewski picked up where he left off, crashing a two run homer in the first inning, which turned out to be his fourth game winning hit of the year.

Stennet pitched into the 7th, when Weber relieved him after the inning started with 3 straight singles, for the only run the Hoosiers scored.

Weber threw 7 straight strikes to get the save; Stennet gave up only two hits and a walk in the first six innings, for his first and only conference win of the year.

So who would start game two?

McGinnis had only won Big Ten win, and that was over the Hawkeyes the second day of the conference season.

Like most Michigan athletes, Sorensen dreamed of being a major leaguer as long as he could remember.

But he put all that on the line, risking his arm, and his future, by telling Moby he could start again on Sunday, even after he pitched a 7 inning complete game Saturday.

The Wolverine bats finally came through, with a 6 run first inning, and 11 total runs on 15 hits.

Sorensen surrendered 3 runs in the 5th, but that was after an 11 to 1 Wolverine lead.

Moby said the plan was for Sorensen to go 3 or 4 innings, then another pitcher, then Weber, if needed.

He threw another complete game, allowing 4 runs, though only two were earned, to go with 5 hits and 4 walks, striking out 8.

Michigan ended the day 7 and 2 in the conference, ahead of 8 and 4 Iowa and 6 and 4 MSU, who had swept Ohio.

With the comfortable lead, and a true Michigan man pitching, no relief was necessary.

Michigan traveled to Wisconsin-Northwestern the next weekend, but the Badger games were rained out.

Weber's luck finally turned and he beat Northwestern 3-2.

It was Sorenson's turn to pitch well and lose, as UM outhit the Wildcats 4 to 2, but 3 Michigan errors contributed to a 2-1 Northwestern victory.

The next weekend was the home-and-home with the Spartans.

Sorenson again went for his 9th win, which would tie the all time single season record, in the first game at Michigan State, but got hammered 10 to 2.

Nevertheless, the Spartans were eliminated, as Minnesota split with Iowa to end the season at 12 and 6, the only team to actually play all 18 scheduled contests.

A Spartan win over us in the finale would put them at 8 and 4, in a percentage tie for first. They split their season series with the Gophers, but the next tie breaker was total runs scored, head to head, and Minnesota won that, 5 to 1.

In spite of an overall 18 win – 18 loss season, the Wolverines needed only to beat Sparty at home to clinch the conference crown, though MSU would still pass us in the standings if they won.

UM outhit Sparty 11 to 10, and each side made two errors, but Weber won easily, 11 to 3, for his team to repeat as champions with a 9 and 4 Big Ten record.

Sorensen and Weber combined for 7 of those 9 wins, pitching 147 and 1/3 of Michigan's 277 innings overall.

Weber finished the regular season with a win-loss record of 4 and 4, completing 7 of his 9 starts, 42 strikeouts to 21 walks, and a team leading 2.37 ERA.

A reliever with less than 16 innings had an ERA of 2.87, and the rest of the staff was 4.50 or higher.

Michigan's 9 and 4 record put Minnesota in second place, ½ game back at 12-6,(38-11 overall record)

Indiana finished 3rd at 10-7, one game back, and Sparty dropped all the way to 4th, at 7-5.

1976 POST SEASON

The NCAA regional was again hosted by Eastern; for reasons known only to himself, Moby declined the opportunity.

Back in the day, there were 32 teams in the NCAA baseball tournament, 8 regional sites with 4 teams each. They usually put one in the Mid-East and one in the North East, the rest usually in the South and West. There was no formula for overall seeding. All the tournaments were double elimination, with the winners meeting in Omaha for the College World Series.

The then Hurons, 46 wins against only 16 losses on the season, (including a 4 – 0 record vs. the Wolverines) again beat us the on the first day, 6 to 0, Sorensen giving up only 5 hits while going all the way, but the Wolves managed only two Jim Berra hits off EMU ace Owchinko, who picked up win #11.

So, Michigan was forced into the loser's bracket on day two.

Weber shut out Southern Illinois , with their NCAA leading .360 batting average, 2 – 0, in the morning game.

After Eastern beat Illinois State, we faced Illinois State in the 3rd game of day two.

Michigan was down 4-2 in the bottom of the 8th, when junior Mark Grenkoski, 1 for 12 at that point in the tournament, smacked his first home run of the year, with two men on for a 5-4 Michigan win, Bill Stennet throwing a complete game.

So, another UM-EMU regional final was set up for day three.

Coming from the loser's bracket at 2-1, we had to sweep 2 and 0 EMU to win the regional, while they only had to beat us once.

As in 1975, we won the rematch, this time, 9 to 3. McGinnis started, but was pulled with one out in the second inning, having surrendered the 3 Huron runs.

Sorensen came in to throw 7 and 2/3 innings of shut out relief, surrendering only two hits, and finally nailing down win number 9.

It was not easy, as the Wolverines scored a run in the 8th to tie the game,and 6 runs in the top of the 9th to force the decisive second game of day three.

Moby came back with Bill Stennet, in spite of the 9 innings he threw just the day before.

Eastern answered with Owchinko, who at least had one day's rest after his shutout of us on Friday.

Their #2 starter, future NL All Star Bob Welch, had also tossed a shutout, on Saturday, but the Wolverines pounded him for 4 runs in less than one inning relief in that 9 to 3 win in the first Sunday game.

Stennet lasted into the 5th, but gave up a walk and 3 consecutive singles. Moby pulled him for Weber, who gave up only one hit, but wild pitched in a run in the 6th. Sorensen came in, again, to throw scoreless 8th and 9th innings, but Owchinko, after two hitting us Friday, three hit us Sunday, and, beat us, again, 6 to zip.

Those were days of the iron men of the mound, no worries about pitch counting.

18 shutout innings for Owchinko, on Friday and Sunday.

For Weber, 9 shutout innings on Saturday, and 3 more innings Sunday, giving up just one run.

For Bob Welch, a shutout Saturday, followed by a 4 run relief stint of less than one inning on Sunday.

And the final two innings of the Wolverines season on Sunday, again, no runs allowed.

1976 did not boast the most talented team, outscoring its opponents overall just 180 runs to 178, hitting only 5 home runs for the entire regular season, and finishing in the middle of the conference in fielding.

But a team with heart, none bigger than the the co- MVPs, Mark Weber, and, Lary Sorenson, the starter who risked his arm and his future, for the team, when he threw back to back complete game victories one weekend in the spring of 1976.

Thanks to Debbie Gallagher of the archives staff at oldnews.org for finding Ann Arbor News stories, with box scores.

The Tigers, barring a veto from owner Mike Ilitch, are going to surrender and be sellers within the next 10 days at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. For the first time since 2008, the Tigers have no choice but to inform teams that two of their marquee commodities will be dealt by the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. The Tigers, according to several people inside and outside the organization familiar with their strategy, plan to put ace David Price and power-hitting outfielder Yoenis Cespedes on the trade market.

The Tigers are in a unique position in that they have six free-agents-to-be — including two elite ones in ace David Price and slugger Yoenis Cespedes. Closer Joakim Soria is a shade below. They also have three pieces that could help the right contender in Rajai Davis, Alex Avila and Alfredo Simon. The market this year is as rich with buyers as ever, and the Tigers are the seller with the most appealing inventory.